Michael P. Raff
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Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Michael Raff fell in love with writing at the impressionable age of thirteen. He took creative writing courses while in college and is a retired psychiatric technician, a veteran of nearly thirty-four years of state service. He is currently a member of the High Desert California Writer's Club. He lives in Hesperia with his wife Joyce and their amazing assortment of animals.
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In 1975 two boys investigate the Breckenridge Mansion on a bet. Their disastrous encounter would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Twenty years later, Jake and Lindsey McKay and their six-year-old daughter fall in love with the newly restored mansion. They are warned there are at least six ghosts haunting the mansion, but they are assured the ghosts are harmless. What they don't know is that there is a seventh ghost, what they come to call the “seventh stranger.” Their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos and mortal danger. A clairvoyant, Katherine Price is called in to help, a woman living in a psychiatric facility with suicidal issues.
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The contents of Michael Raff's eighth book, Something Different
Tell Me A Story - to save himself, a successful writer must intrigue Death personified with a true story about himself. Surviving Saint Michael’s - attending a grammar school reunion, Billy Radek conjures up some dubious memories and solves a fifteen-year-old mystery. The Second Greatest Escape - three elderly men flee an assisted living facility, hoping to fulfill their destinies, and discover some surprises. An award-winning story. Ballantine’s Bayou - with a price on his head, mobster Lee Vaughn orders his last meal while waiting to be rubbed out. A tad psychic, he may have a few tricks up his sleeve. The Surrounding Silence - trying to prevent patient abuse, Matt Robinson discovers doing the right thing can have a devastating effect. A Life Stolen - Maggie Addison pays with her mind, body, and soul for her former husband’s physical and mental abuse. Based on a true story. Donny Sharp - Jerry Hardin, in charge of the dayshift on Unit 15 at Letterman State Hospital, makes a new friend his first day: a frail little guy with abundant courage, a squeaky voice, a green helmet and the worse seizures in the entire hospital. Based in truth and an award-winning story. The Salvation of Edward Wilson - suffering from PTSD for seventy years, Edward Wilson returns to Pearl Harbor and battles his demons. An award-winning story. Magic Man - Chris Graham dies and returns to life with healing powers he not only doesn’t understand, but ravages him. Seventeen stories in all. |
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The contents of Michael Raff’s seventh book, Shadowland consists of seven tales of the supernatural:
Ship of Pain – a wounded WWI soldier aboard a hospital ship infected with influenza, fights evil forces for survival. Runaway – Donna Mae Larkin hitchhikes her way across the country to escape her sexually abusive uncle, only to be stalked by a man-eating creature in a condemned southern mansion. Night Watch – Tony Christopher, a security guard devastated by the disappearance of his girlfriend, finds himself battling forces only he can see―forces such as an entity camouflaged as a cemetery and its soul-seeking groundskeeper. The Cellar – eighty-year-old Magda can no longer care for her nephew, Kurt, who turns into a werewolf when the moon turns full. It’s up to social worker Stephen Pierce to separate fact from fantasy, myth from reality―if he lives long enough. Zander’s Box – John Zander, a clairvoyant, must drive from Chicago to Washington D.C. through the destructive path of a rampaging “Doomsday Plague.” His objective: save humanity by reading the mind of his comatose twin brother, a top immunologist who has discovered a cure. Birds of a Feather – Gabrielle Pasqual a famous movie star along with her lawyer, Marty, murder her husband, and are destined to get away with it. Their sole obstacle: a rare, carnivorous parrot that’s about to inflict a deadly revenge. Wreck of the Lady Lydia – Alec and Carol Tamrine, along with Vic Wagner, and their divemaster, Moss, discover millions in treasure inside a mysterious wreck. But a demonic presence, once known as the pirate Henry Merrick, will do anything to horde his fortune. |
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STALKERS - On the night of June, 30, 1995, in Springdale, Georgia, David Conway relaxes on the balcony of his new home. To his delight, the night is alive with thunder and lightning. When he spots four cloaked figures burying something in his neighbor’s backyard, he takes a closer look through his telescope. To his horror he discovers they’re burying the dismembered body of his neighbor. Before he can phone for help, they spot him, and so begins a long, agonizing night of mortal combat. It’s a war between an innocent man and a band of rampaging Satanists, a horrendous, age-old battle of good versus evil.
David Conway, amateur astronomer, chess enthusiast, and family man, finds himself not only fighting for his life, but for the lives of his wife and five-year-old daughter. As the hours crawl by and the carnage continues, no one—not the sheriff, his deputies, or even the FBI—can protect them. |
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SPECIAL - is the non fictional collection of the author's memories of how in the summer of 1970, he met Jill Adams, a shy, young, Mormon girl from Utah, who harbored a deep-seated conviction that she would die violently at an early age. Because she was so young and awkward, at first he kept her at a distance. But a year later, she blossomed into a beautiful and elegant young woman, who he fell deeply in love with. They quickly found themselves launched on a roller coaster ride, a relationship with many highs, heartaches, and breakups along the way, only to climax in a most tragic and unusual fashion.
Now available with new cover. |
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July, 1958. A Different Time and Place. Kevin Dresner, a twelve-year-old with psychic abilities he doesn't understand, is spending two weeks at his grandparents' farm in rural Wisconsin. Across the highway looms Strauss Woods, an endless maze that houses deadly secrets, murder victims, and an avenging phantom known as the Skeleton Man. In an effort to save his grandfather's life and perhaps his own, Kevin and his new found friend, Natalie, embark on a supernatural journey of twists, turns, and terror, to unlock a horrifying thirty-year-old mystery. The author, Michael Raff, utilizes a maximum amount of suspense, tension, mystery, and romance in telling this unusual blend of supernatural, horror, coming of age and fish out of water story. Told mostly from a naive, twelve-year-old boy's point of view, it is also told from the point of view of five adult murderers, who are being hunted down one at a time by the title character. The story is further enhanced by Kevin's friend, Natalie Miller, a precious, chatty, intellectual, who through all the thrills and chills in the story, manages to steal our hearts.
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Nine tales of suspense and terror. In "Winter's Fog," Ronald wakes to find his wife missing. Before long, everything he values and has ever known, will be lost in a mysterious fog. "The Spider and the Fly," takes a grim look into a schizophrenic's mind, as he struggles in the never-ending web of insanity. Ever since he was nine-years-old, Andy McGrath has been stalked by hideous creatures known as "Gargoyles." Savage beings that only come out of the shadows during the most traumatic of times. In the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying story "Had She Lived," Feisty Gallagher is about to conduct an interview that will put a new spin on the term - blood-curdling In "Macabre Inc." Richie's Uncle Marlin is in for the shock of a lifetime when he orders a very realistic looking zombie. After a strange old man tells Mitch Curtis that he had just died in a car accident, an outraged Mitch races off in his SUV. In a matter of minutes, he takes a sudden "Detour" into a haunted, terrifying world where anything can happen. That's just five stories in Michael Raff's horror anthology. A collection of work that's guaranteed to keep you up at night.
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scare tacticsBruce Corman's early morning walks have become something of an ordeal. Are there nightmarish creatures following him, or is it just his imagination? Don Evans, a down and out alcoholic, tries to help a young, wayward girl . . . who just happens to be a ghost. Temporally placed in custody of his eccentric aunt, nine-year-old Josh Tyler has his hand full when mysterious forces haunt his every move. As Jenny Trenton rides her horse along an isolated trail, she finds herself stalked by an unknown and methodical killer. People are disappearing and a pizza parlor owner just may be someone exceptionally alien. And Stuart Collier will do just about anything for a promotion, and his boss will stop at nothing to lure him into a journey of devastation and terror. Eight spine-tingling stories in all.
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SEVEN: Tales of TerrorTwo boys discover an unholy presence hidden behind a concealed door. Lester Farnsworth battles to the death with an unknown deity that possesses an Indian doll. A modern day witch seduces and entraps men with the help of her army of cats. And a vampire confesses his grisly deeds to a young priest. That's just four horrifying tales within the pages of Seven.
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